1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a wind blade device and, more particularly, the invention relates to a wind blade device designed to turn the vertical drive shaft of a vertical-axis wind turbine while presenting the greatest surface area to the wind, and receiving the wind from any direction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To date, the prevailing design for wind-turbines has favored “horizontal-axis” turbines (HAWT), in which a tall tower supports a massive, vertically oriented set of blades, like a propeller, which rotate in the wind to turn a horizontally oriented drive shaft, this shaft in turn rotating a generator. Among the HAWT's advantages are their popularity: horizontal-axis turbines are the existing technology used in wind farms around the world, making them the “accepted standard”; horizontal-axis turbine technology also enjoys an established parts-supply chain. These turbines are manufactured, erected, and managed by well-organized, large corporations; and their fundamental design goes back centuries.
The horizontal-axis wind turbines, however, also present disadvantages. These include efficiency, expense, height, coping with changes in wind direction, maintenance, and excessive noise. The alternative, one that eliminates many of the disadvantages of the horizontal-axis machines, is a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine, or VAWT in which the blades of the turbine are mounted not on a horizontal drive shaft but atop a vertical drive shaft, the result of which is improved energy-efficiency and performance at a lower cost, and at lower tower-heights.